Approaching Language Transfer through Text Classification: Explorations in the Detection-based Approach (Second Language Acquisition) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184769697X ISBN 13: 9781847696977

Verlag: Multilingual Matters, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Recent work has pointed to the need for a detection-based approach to transfer capable of discovering elusive crosslinguistic effects through the use of human judges and computer classifiers that can learn to predict learners' language backgrounds based on their patterns of language use. This book addresses that need. It details the nature of the detection-based approach, discusses how this approach fits into the overall scope of transfer research, and discusses the few previous studies that have laid the groundwork for this approach. The core of the book consists of five empirical studies that use computer classifiers to detect the native-language affiliations of texts written by foreign language learners of English. The results highlight combinations of language features that are the most reliable predictors of learners' language backgrounds.

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Scott Jarvis (Ph.D., Indiana University) holds the title of Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Ohio University, where his main research interests include crosslinguistic influence, cognitive linguistics, and research methods related to the investigation of language proficiency and the measurement of lexical diversity. His work in these areas has appeared in several authored and edited books, numerous book chapters and journal papers in the fields of second language acquisition and multilingualism. Professor Jarvis is also Associate Executive Director for the journal Language Learning.

Scott A. Crossley is an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University. His work involves the application of natural language processing theories and approaches for investigating second language acquisition, text readability, and writing proficiency. His current research interests include lexical proficiency, writing quality, and text coherence and processing.

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Approaching Language Transfer through Text Classification

Explorations in the Detection-Based Approach

By Scott Jarvis, Scott A. Crossley

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2012 Scott Jarvis, Scott A. Crossley and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-84769-697-7

Contents

Contributors, 
1 The Detection-Based Approach: An Overview Scott Jarvis, 
2 Detecting L2 Writers' L1s on the Basis of Their Lexical Styles Scott Jarvis, Gabriela Castañeda-Jiménez and Rasmus Nielsen, 
3 Exploring the Role of n-Grams in L1 Identification Scott Jarvis and Magali Paquot, 
4 Detecting the First Language of Second Language Writers Using Automated Indices of Cohesion, Lexical Sophistication, Syntactic Complexity and Conceptual Knowledge Scott A. Crossley and Danielle S. McNamara, 
5 Error Patterns and Automatic L1 Identification Yves Bestgen, Sylviane Granger and Jennifer Thewissen, 
6 The Comparative and Combined Contributions of n-Grams, Coh-Metrix Indices and Error Types in the L1 Classification of Learner Texts Scott Jarvis, Yves Bestgen, Scott A. Crossley, Sylviane Granger, Magali Paquot, Jennifer Thewissen and Danielle McNamara, 
7 Detection-Based Approaches: Methods, Theories and Applications Scott A. Crossley, 

CHAPTER 1

The Detection-Based Approach: An Overview

Scott Jarvis

Introduction

The overarching goal of this book is to contribute to the field of transfer research. The authors of the various chapters of the book use the term transfer interchangeably with the terms crosslinguistic influence and crosslinguistic effects to refer to the consequences – both direct and indirect – that being a speaker of a particular native language (L1) has on the person's use of a later-learned language. In the present book, we investigate these consequences in essays written in English by foreign-language learners of English from many different countries and L1 backgrounds. Our analyses focus on the word forms, word meanings and word sequences they use in their essays, as well as on the various types of deviant grammatical constructions they produce. Although some of our analyses take into consideration the types of errors learners produce, for the most part our analyses are indifferent to whether learners' language use is grammatical or ungrammatical. What we focus on instead is the detection of language-use patterns that are characteristic and distinctive of learners from specific L1 backgrounds, regardless of whether those patterns involve errors or not. We acknowledge, however, that what makes these patterns distinctive in many cases is, if not errors, at least under-uses and overuses of various forms, structures and meanings.

The novel contribution of this book is seen in its focused pursuit of the following general research question, which has only rarely received attention in past empirical work: is it possible to identify the L1 background of a language learner on the basis of his or her use of certain specific features of the target language? The potential for an affirmative answer to this question offers a great deal of promise to present and future ventures in transfer research, as I explain in the following sections. At a broad level, this area of research encompasses both the psycholinguistic ability of human judges to detect source-language influences in a person's use of a target language, and the machine-learning capabilities of computer classifiers to do the same. In the present volume, we give only brief attention to the former phenomenon because the main focus of the book is the latter. Also, although we are interested in multiple directions of transfer, such as from a second language (L2) to a third language (L3) or vice versa, as well as from a nonnative language to the L1, for practical reasons we have decided to focus almost exclusively on L1 influence in this book, which should be seen as an early attempt to adopt, adapt and further develop new tools and procedures that we hope can later be applied to the investigation of other directions of crosslinguistic influence.

The Aims of This Book in Relation to the Scope of Transfer Research

In a book-length synthesis of the existing literature on crosslinguistic influence, Aneta Pavlenko and I have stated that 'the ultimate goal of transfer research [is] the explanation of how the languages a person knows inter act in the mind' (Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2008: 111). Most transfer research to date has not focused directly on this goal, but has nevertheless contributed indirectly to it through work on what can be described as enabling goals, or areas of research that lead to the ultimate goal. Figure 1.1 depicts the four primary enabling goals of transfer research as I see them. The first is the pursuit of empirical discoveries that expand our pool of knowledge and understanding of crosslinguistic influence. The second involves theoretical advances that explain existing empirical discoveries and additionally offer empirically testable hypotheses about what transfer is, what its sources and constraints are, what mechanisms it operates through and what its specific effects are. The third enabling goal relates to the development of methodological tools, techniques, procedures and conventions for testing those hypotheses and especially for disambiguating cases where crosslinguistic effects are hidden, obscured by other factors or otherwise uncertain. Finally, the fourth enabling goal involves the development of an argumentation framework that sets standards for (a) the types of evidence that are needed to build a case for or against the presence of transfer; (b) how those types of evidence can and should be combined with one another in order to form strong, coherent arguments; and (c) the conditions under which argumentative rigor can be said to have been achieved. These four enabling goals overlap to a certain degree and also feed into one another in such a way that advances in one area often drive advances in another.

Figure 1.1 shows that the scope of transfer research also includes applications, which are defined as areas of research and other forms of scholarly activity that are not necessarily intended to lead toward the ultimate goal, but instead tend to be directed toward the development of practical applications of what is known about crosslinguistic influence and its effects. Broadly speaking, the applications of transfer research include the detection of instances of crosslinguistic effects (e.g. for forensic purposes), the diagnosis or assessment of transfer-related effects (e.g. for pedagogical or curricular purposes), and the development and implementation of treatments or interventions intended to minimize negative and/or maximize positive cross-linguistic effects (e.g. in order to help individuals or even whole communities achieve their language-related objectives). Progress in the pursuit of these applications often relies on discoveries and developments in research directed toward the enabling goals, but sometimes the inherited benefits are in the opposite direction. Scholarly work on transfer can sometimes also result in simultaneous advances in both areas – enabling goals and applications.

We believe that this is true of the present book, which is dedicated to the advancement of transfer research in relation to three of the enabling goals (empirical discoveries, methodological tools and argumentation heuristics) and one of the applications (detection). The first two of these goals constitute...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Multilingual Matters
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 184769697X
• ISBN 13: 9781847696977
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 198
• Herausgeber: Jarvis Scott, Crossley Scott A.
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland